I went to Sabah last week with my family. Memang jarang sekali
saya menulis tentang pengalaman bercuti/melancong saya tetapi kali ini saya
rasa saya perlu menulis tentangnya sebelum saya terlupa.
Went there for only 3 days 2 nights, but the experience was
halfway horrendous.
Kami sekeluarga, 8 dewasa, 4 kanak2 (termasuk 1 infant) pergi
in Apr 14 which I think is the suitable time to go to the sea, the current and
the waves are calming. Tiket kapal terbang Air Asia dah dibeli my sis since
early 2013, so return ticket each person is approx. MYR90++ which is of
course-cheap. Tiket tu dari KL-Tawau.
Before we went to Mabul, I already made a survey on the
accommodation and transportation (boat & land transport) di sana nanti.
Lebih kurang sebulan jugak nak deal benda ni sbb as far as I know, resort2 di
Mabul ni tak bleh deal direct dgn pihak resort, kena deal ngan agent2 yang
dilantik mereka ni. So rate-rate resort kat sana berbeza2 walaupun resort yang
sama. Sebab tu la saya makan masa jugak untuk survey the best resort. Rupanya
perjalanan nak sampai ke Mabul island ni bukan macam kita nak gi Pangkor or
Langkawi where banyak boat/feri yg dedicated utk ke pulau2 tu dari
jeti….perjalanannya adalah seperti berikut. Tawau Airport -> Samporna
(45minits) -> Mabul (30-45minits). Jauhkan?!
In here, I will be writing about things that are CRUCIAL dan
sangatlah penting untuk dititik beratkan kalau nak ke Mabul/Kapalai/Sipadan
Island ni.
1)
Accomodation/Hotel/Resort
Rate di sekitar resort kat Mabul ni mmg la mahal rata-ratanya.
Tak macam resort2 di tempat2 establish macam Pulau Langkawi, Pulau Pangkor or
PD. Mungkin sbb resort yg ada di Mabul ni limited, so sbb tu la ratenya agak
mahal. Normal deluxe/superior room per night PER PERSON is almost RM300++.
Diorang tak kira per room ,tapi diorang kira per person. Jadi, kalau dua hari
sorang dah spend approx. Rm400 (ni paling kurang ye) untuk accommodation
sahaja, so you can imagine other cost here. So masa survey mmg saya dapat a few best affordable/recommended chalet under Scuba Junkie, Scuba Jeff, Uncle Chang, tetapi
MALANGNYA, masa saya call diorang in Feb 14 diorang kata bilik2 dah occupied.
So? The last option was to contact agents2 yang saya just boleh google je.
Agent2 ni pulak ada limited bilik diberikan kat dorang ni oleh resort. Macam
ada quota la. So lastly saya deal ngan RAHA Legacy which I think website nye
sangatlah proper dan user-friendly. Bandingan rate2 bilik from RAHA ni is
cheaper than other agencies. PLUS orang2 kat RAHA Agency ni sgtlah friendly,
helpful dan memahami. Dorang akan reply SMS/Whatsapp and even call you during
the weekends for the booking arrangement. Nak jadikan cerita, memula no of pax
family kami yg pergi was 11 adults, 4 kids, tapi 3 tarik diri last minit. Masa
nak buat booking ngan RAHA tu, saya pun booking la couple/family satu bilik
sekeluarga dan yang single/datang tanpa spouse utk duk kat dorm je. So
available dorm masa tu can cater to 10 pax. So I booked 3 deluxe rooms dan 1
dorm utk remaining family members. I booked for Mabul Beach Resort yg I think
is the most affordable compare to SMART, water village,bungalow & resort2
yang lebih exclusive. Utk 2 malam dapat rate rm760 per pax dan yang duk dorm
dapat RM590 per pax. Mahal gak sebenarnya macam saya cakap kalau nak dibandingkan
dengan pulau2 Malaysia yang lain. Im sure even if we go to countries like
Indonesia or Thailand the rates will be much cheaper. We almost had a deal when
RAHA rep called me and bagitahu yang the dorm will be filled by others kalau
dorm tu masih ada katil yang vacant! Oh no no! tak mungkin kami nak share
dengan outsider dorm kami tu. Walhal bilik tu dah hampir 8 pax kami penuhkan,
diorang still nak penuhkan quota bilik tu. :’( jadi deal saya dengan RAHA
terpaksa dibatalkan! Mmg very disappointing sebab deal dengan mereka hampir 2
weeks! So nak cari mana lagi kan sebab dah banyak resort/chalet yang dah penuh
(walaupun tarikh kami pergi tu Khamis-Jumaat-Sabtu dan bukan cuti sekolah!). So
nak tak nak terpaksa amik accommodation kat Samporna je sbb tak mampu
sekeluarga nak duk resort mahal2 unless gi in a small group or gi ngan kawan2
yang sama mampu hehehe. Cari di Agoda dan Booking.com memang diorang suggest
Hotel Seafest kira terbaik la kat Samporna. Tapi hotel ni just basic je..rate pun
dia kira by room (as usual) not by person. So dalam bilik 2 orang RM190 per
night boleh bahagi dua, dah jimat di situ. Kira mampu la sikit satu family nak
selesa. Cuma yang kurangnye adalah makanan sbb hotel just prepare breakfast je sbb makanan
limited kat pekan Samporna tu…kalau amik resort2 dorang dah sediakan breakfast
up to dinner.
2)
Transportation
Ini adalah bab yang paling irritating. Cost transportation
seorang sahaja is approx. RM180 utk 3 hari dua malam tu! Nasib la saya awal2
contact agent utk fetch kami di airport tawau. Dia cas satu van Rm200 dan satu
kereta MyVi Rm100. Untuk sight seing (dalam 1 jam 30m) naik boat pergi melawat
tempat orang jual ikan2, ambil2 pic sekejap dah cas RM20 seorang. Hari kedua
pergi Mabul naik boat dicaj RM75 sorang tak termasuk equipment rental utk
snorkeling or diving. Dan harus diingat, perjalanan ke Mabul tu takes about
30-45mins tak ada kipas or aircond and pukul 10am tu matahari dah tegak dah kat
situ and we can imagine how super hot it was. Kesian kat kanak2 yang naik boat
la sbb tak tahan panas dan x selesa sebab boat pun kecik. Dan kena pandai la
cari orang yang bawak boat tu sbb malang sekali pakcik yg bawak boat kami tu
tak tahu bawak kami ke tempat yang banyak ikan/hidupan laut. Dia just bawak
kami ke tempat untuk snorkeling, air jernih semata tanpa ada ikan. Tu yang
paling frust rasanya sebab dapat tengok ikan just kat deep sea je. And pakcik
tu pun x menyediakan proper equipment for rental. So only few of us dare to use
the improper safety jacket to snorkel. Balik pulak naik the same van/car tp
kalau nak singgah bandar Tawau kena bayar additional RM15 seorang pulak.
Haish….walhal from Bandar Tawau to airport only takes 20-30mins je. :/ tsk tsk
3)
Cleanliness
Perkara yang paling menyedihkan adalah kebersihan di bandar
Samporna ni. Terlalu teruk sampai ada article2 yang saya baca menyatakan
Samporna ni bandar sampah, city of garbage, and ada juga feedback dalam trip
advisor.com kata Malaysia ni the dirtiest place on earth…terus dilabelkan satu
Malaysia ni kotor. Bayangkan kat jeti tempat kami amik boat dah penuh sampah
berlambakan macam duduk dalam tempat pembuangan sampah. Kakak saya sempat
interview orang2 yang jual2 ikan di pasar Samporna tu, penjual itu dengan
selamba kata memang dah tabiat orang sini suka membuang sampah. :( Quoting what
my sister said, “cuba cik fikir, dalam masa 10 tahun macam mana keadaan tempat
ni..ada ke lagi orang nak datang untuk berekreasi, apa akan jadi dengan tempat nii?”
I cant imagine.
4)
Kids
of Mabul
Sampai je boat kami di pulau Mabul, kami dikerumuni sekumpulan
kanak-kanak…I would call these kids as “Orang Pulau” because they are people
who lived in the island, who reside at the kampong in the island. So I thought
at first they were just simply being friendly or welcoming. But I was tad
wrong. They were there to beg for foods/money/anything that we can give to
them. I was surprised they acted that way because I didn’t know they were that
desperate? Roti anak buah saya yang separuh dah makan pun mereka tak kisah nak
makan. Hmm.. kasihan. I didn’t know about this before I came here. So it will
be good if people who are planning to go to these islands to bring some used
clothes bagi kat budak2 ni sbb pakaian mereka pun sangat daif…tengok keadaan
mereka pun tahu mereka ni susah. Dan mereka ni tak memaksa untuk disedekah,
diorang meminta dengan muka manis and polite way. Kalau kita tak nak bagi, mereka just diri di tepi je.
5)
Others
– food, price, shops
Well like I said, theres not so much of option for foods &
restaurant if we choose to live in Semporna. Its such a small bandar that you
only have a few restaurant. Overall food we ate for the 2 days are lacking of
taste, and surprisingly the seafoods also were not that impressive. Foods and
drinks in the islands are of course much expensive. Pergi Mabul, beli air di
resort berdekatan, air mineral botol besar RM7. Air tin such as coke is RM5. Luckily
sebelum sampai Mabul kami dah beli barang2 picnic malam sebelumnya kat Giant.
So we don’t have to buy any food while spending the whole day in the island.
Again, shops are limited, the only ‘grand’ fast food restaurant is KFC which is
around 20 mins walking distance. Nak dapat kereta sapu agak susah waktu malam
so we decided to walk in a group instead. Dan tempat shopping yang paling ok is
of course Giant supermarket. Most kedai di Samporna tutup pukul 8pm.
Well after I went there, and came back, there are many questions
asked by my friends if going to Mabul is recommended. Well, i gotta say, kalau ada budget
yang lebih, better book duduk di Pulau rather than duduk di Samporna. If ada
duit lebih, better hire agent utk buat all the arrangement including
transportation dari airport sampai la ke arrangement boat dan makanan. But I
told them, make sure buat survey bebetul sebab it took me over 2 weeks to find
a good affordable agent yang memang bukan hanya untuk ambil duit kita semata.
Reaching to the beach, the island is heaven, but you gotta go through a slight
hellish experience before getting there though. :D
Here's some pics taken from my FB:-
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